Central heat SMELLS BAD!

4 years ago

We have lived in this house through 2.5 winters now. I don't remember this being an issue the previous years, but this year, we just turned on the central heat for the first time this season and OH BOY IT SMELLS! If I stand right over a vent, the air coming out makes me feel sick! My husband swears he changed all the filters just a month ago, and we were running the AC until recently, and that didn't have an odor.

The smell reminds me exactly of the way our garage smells, like a mix of musty mildew, and gasoline. It's a strong smell. We do have some kind of heat unit in the garage, could that be the cause of this? Does anyone know what I should do to investigate or fix this? Attached is a photo of the garage heat unit.

Any advice is helpful, thank you.

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Comments (2)

klem1
4 years ago
Your discription leave's little doubt blower is pulling air from garage,if you can't find why,hire someone that can.
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Austin Air Companie
4 years ago
OH BOY IT SMELLS! If I stand right over a vent, the air coming out makes me feel sick! My husband swears he changed all the filters just a month ago, and we were running the AC until recently, and that didn't have an odor.

It maybe something it may be nothing more than residual build up on electric strip heat. Do you know if the outdoor unit is a heat pump or not?

It's not uncommon for electric air handlers to emit a smell for a time when first firing off the heat of a season. As a system ages, dust / dirt can become mold... the mold will grow on inner parts of the air handler, if it happens to grow on the heat strips then upon using the heat you get some funky smells when firing it up first of a season. Mold can grow on wire harnesses and such as well. Start out by finding the "condition" of your system.

Pull the panels off the unit, pull the filter out --- look up to see if coil is clean on bottom side. Check the interior of the cabinet --- any signs of mold inside the cabinet of the AH?

If this unit is a heat pump and mold / dust / dirt / slime is on the coil --- upon heating it (while running in heat mode) it can produce smells.

Something more sinister? maybe. DSS or dirty sock syndrome. Trane (your manufacturer) is who coined these terms. While DSS is rare it is typically more common with electric heat and or heat pump and often shows during seasonal change overs from AC to heat.

As it turns out it's not that hard to stop a Trane.... via derailment. That said any manufacturer can exhibit these kinds of problems. I only highlight this as Trane brings it on themselves with gimmick based advertising.

HVAC service. You will always need a good HVAC service man. What do you mean my AC is broken? It was working just 5 min ago! The definition of a broken AC and or furnace. Also what I say here is NOT intended to tell you to service your own HVAC system. It is meant to give you some insight only.

Some of what I say here isn't necessarily meant for the OP. Read with your eyes open applying common sense where needed. (You know who you are, LOL)

I service the Katy, Texas area.
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